Osama bin Laden is dead -- killed last night in an operation executed by U.S. Navy Seals. Because of him thousands died in the U.S. and Americans continue to die in foreign wars. Because of him Afghanistan has been fighting itself and the U.S. for over a decade; Pakistan is bruised and battered, thousands have lost their lives; and countless others have died across the world.

His organization, Al-Qaeda, was used by the previous administration to justify (falsely) the invasion of Iraq - at the time fully two-thirds of Americans had been convinced Iraq was affiliated with Al-Qaeda. The only reliable academic study (from Johns Hopkins) published in the prestigious British journal Lancet puts Iraqi dead due to the war at up to a million, the displaced at five million; the country is a shambles, a secular though indubitably nasty regime replaced by a Shiite religious one, and women's rights turned back at least a half century.

Osama bin Laden was responding to grievances that struck a chord across the Middle East: the question of usurped resources, the Israeli/ Palestinian issue. The means he chose left a swath of destruction harming most of the people he purported to champion, and everyone is happy to be rid of him.

It is ironic and unfortunate that he dies when Al-Qaeda is a spent force, superceded by the Arab Spring revolutions of the young whose instruments are Facebook and Twitter not the bomb and the AK 47; ironic, because their means turned out to be incomparably more effective; unfortunate, because if he becomes a martyr, it could well breathe new life into Al-Qaeda. That is why he should have been captured alive.

On our side, we have to be careful to avoid the kind of triumphalism that finds its way on to the recruiting videos of Al-Qaeda. There are also those here who never relinquish the linkage narrative currently accusing Pakistan of actually hiding bin Laden. Considering the assassination attempts on the previous Pakistan President's life and the successful murder of the present one's wife (Benazir Bhutto) both attributed to Al-Qaeda elements, the idiocy of that construct is apparent to any but the most agenda driven.

As time for withdrawal from Afghanistan nears, we have to negotiate satisfactory terms with the Taliban. Pakistan's help and influence in this regard is going to be invaluable. It has helped the U.S. in Afghanistan before (during the Soviet invasion) only to be spurned after its perceived usefulness was over. It would be foolish to make the same mistake again -- we also have a moral obligation as the country has been ravaged by the current conflict.

To seal the peace, we have to bring Pakistan and India together. Kashmir, the bleeding sore, has to be healed before the two nuclear-armed neighbors do irreparable damage. A concept for a lasting peace already exists: autonomy for Kashmir, with both countries relinquishing their occupied halves, in a regional framework not unlike the European Community. The question is, who has the will to push it through and ensure long-term stability and prosperity.